VacationSelector
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Phnom Penh or Santa Fe?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Phnom Penh’s own page.

Choose Santa Fe for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Phnom Penh 6, Santa Fe 5: Phnom Penh leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Phnom Penh and Santa Fe are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Phnom Penh 62, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Phnom Penh 58, Santa Fe 22: Phnom Penh leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Phnom Penh 28, Santa Fe 80: Santa Fe leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Phnom Penh 34, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Phnom Penh 32, Santa Fe 45: Santa Fe leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Phnom Penh 35, Santa Fe 40: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Phnom Penh 46, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Phnom Penh 86, Santa Fe 30: Phnom Penh leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Phnom Penh 32, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Phnom Penh 50, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Phnom Penh and Santa Fe.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
13 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Phnom PenhSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhnom PenhSanta Fe
Official languageKhmer-
CurrencyRiel (KHR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsACG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 117, ambulance 119, fire 118911
Elevation11 m2,134 m
Main airportTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhnom PenhSanta Fe
City population2,129,37187,505
People per km²3,138645
Museums within 10 km310
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Phnom Penh or Santa Fe somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.